The Development of America Schools

1600s Education in the Colonies-

1619 - Africans enslaved and Native Americans were not European American educated, they
had their own cultural education system before the Colonies were established.

Puritans Homeschooling- First lesson was reading. Parents and grandparents taught
values,manners,social grace and vocational skills.

Dame schools- A “dame” or woman interested in education taught reading,writing and

computation in their homes for a fee to the community. Quality of instructions varied

Apprenticeship Program - 7 year old boys went to live with masters who educated them on
trades. Homeschooling skills were taught to girls by their mother.

Local Schools (Elementary) - First towns then included into larger districts in New England ,
Fee, Basic skills and Religion. Teaching device : Hornbook

Private Tutors - Teachers and tutors traveling in the English colony south to small towns and
teaching the wealthy children. Fees, room and board for various levels of education.

1635- Latin Grammar school (Secondary school), Establish in Boston , Massachusetts Taught
wealthy boys for college, fee, Classical curriculum (Latin & Greek) Roman Empire

1642-Massachusetts law passed requiring “ that parents and masters of apprentices be

checked periodically to ensure that children were being taught properly (Sadker,Zittleman and
Koch, 2022.p.133).” Puritans

1647-Old Deluder Satan Law/The Massachusetts Law of 1647 :1) Every town of fifty
households must appoint and pay a teacher of reading and writing. 2) Every town of one
hundred households must provide a (Latin) grammar school to prepare youths for the university,
under a penalty of $5 for failure to do so.

1680- Most of New England by way of Puritans had adopted the Old Deluder Satan Law
Lived in towns and communities

1690- New England Primer , 1st real textbook used until 1800.

Educational norms of today from colonial period

Local control of schools

Compulsory education
Tax-supported schools
State standards for teaching and schools

1700s Middle Colonies

The first half of the 1700 century american education was dominated by the Puritans
establishment of european based education with extension of the religious state.

1700s-English Grammar Schools, Private schools,practical studies, preparation for business,

means of installing social graces and admitted European-america girls

1700s-Itinerant Schools in the North, Traveling teachers stayed in homes and gave instructions,
rural american/New England schooling village to village, fees

1700s-Private teachers and night schools were in Philadelphia and New York , teaching
accounting, navigation, French and Spanish

Thomas Jefferson visioned an education system that would go beyond educating only the
wealthy elite and extended to all classes of white American children. The Puritans' ideology of
mastering the Greek and Latin classics were called into question by public citizens because of a
lack of practical skills for the New World.

1749- Benjamin Franklin wrote Proposals Relating to the Youth of Pennsylvania. A new form of
secondary school to replace Latin grammar schools.

1752- The Franklin Academy was established. Free of religion, mathematics, astronomy,
athletics, navigation, dramatics and bookkeeping is taught. Students could choose subjects,
European- American Boys and Girls attended if they could afford. This established the idea to
more than six thousand academics to be open in the century. Later became the University of
Pennsylvania

1775- The American Revolution started

1783- The American Revolution ended

1783- American Spelling Book, Noah Webster First published also called Blue Backed Speller
1800s Education in colonies

1821-English Classical School, first free secondary school, established in Boston,

Massachusetts 172 European- American Boys only

1828- Election of Andrew Jackson as President of the United States

1830-Common (Elementary) Schools- Greater fairness to education , free,open to all social

classes

Horace Mann - The leading advocate for common school open to all and today it is known as
public elementary school. Referred to as “the father of public schools. Assisted with creating
the Massachusetts State Board of Education

1837- Horace Mann becomes secretary of Massachusetts State Board of Education

Reform education to be practical and idealistic goals so that business and industry would have
educated workers and be more productive.

1852- English Classical School , For girls in Boston, Massachusetts

1874- Kalamazoo, Michigan High school case , court ruled that taxes can be used to support
secondary schools. Michigan citizens already had access to free elementary schools and
state-supported universities so there should be a rational bridge between them.

1875- Francis Parker, superintendent of schools Quincy, Massachusetts, teaching ideology of

progressive principles like student-centered and problem-based learning

1880- Nearly 10 million Americans were attending elementary schools and upper level both
private and public.

1892- The National Education Association (NEA) established the Committee of Ten
to develop a national policy for high schools
-Consistency and order in the high school curriculum for an easier transition into college
-High schools required certain courses to be taught four or five times a week for one year
-Students progress be measured by Carnegie Units making it easier for colleges to choose
students that could do college level work

1896- Plessy vs Ferguson Supreme Court decision which upheld the constitutionality of racial
segregation , “Separate but equal” doctrine. Total segregated society for African-
Americans

- Near the end of the 1800s there was a shifting of the American economy from agrarian to
industrial.
-This revolution of manufacturing technology moved people from rural to urban centers and
created a view that elementary schools were inadequate ; that high schools were more
important for better jobs and the sophisticated and industrialized society that was expanding..
-The teenage workers' decline came as the high school popularity grew.
-The high school growth did have a problem of not meeting the needs of all its students.

1900s Education in America

1909 - First junior high school established in Columbus, Ohio . Grades 7,8, and 9. Designed to
meet the unique needs of preadolescents, Core curriculum : individualized instruction,
physiological, and social .

1918- NEA repeated this time to focus on preparing adults for their life roles.
-few americans went on to college
-most americans went on to work and family
-Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education, identities seven goals for high school
1. Health 2. Worthy home membership 3. Command of fundamental academic skills 4. Vocation
5. Citizenship 6. Worthy use of leisure time 7. Ethical character

1920/30s- John Dewey the most influential advocacy for the Progressive education movement

1920s- Pattern of “separate but equal” education was applied to Mexican Americans

1930s-Famous study that compared college performance of students educated in progressive

schools verse those who attended traditional high schools students and students from
progressive schools outperformed students from traditional

1942 - study was published same year of Pearl Harbor and ignored

1950s- After World War 2, United States of America is the most powerful nation in the world
-Middle school development with grades 5 thru 8th
-Middle schools designed to prepare preadolescents for high school

1954- Brown vs, Board of Education Case : “Supreme Court decision that declared “Separate
but equal” is unconstitutional
-African-American Civil Rights movement
1958 - Congress passed the National Defense Education Act (NDEA) Security of Nation to be
enhanced by develop of the mental resources and technical skills of its young men and women
-improvement of instruction and curriculum development
-fund teacher training programs
-provided loans and scholarships for college students in subjects deemed national defense

1960s Education in America

1960-Kennenth Clark, First African-American to receive doctorate in psychology from Columbia

University , First African-American to tenure at City College of New York

African-American Civil Rights movement continues

-Movement against the Supreme Court ruling in 1896 Plessy vs. Ferguson

1964-Civil Rights Act : Title:1 Discriminatory Voting Tactics, Title:2 Desegregation of Public
Accommodations, Title3: Desegregation of Public Property , Title 4: Desegregation of Public
Schools and Colleges and etc….. Produced more desegregation of schools than the Brown vs.
education decision had in the preceding decade.

1965 -New Immigration Act allows significant increase to Filipinos to enter the United States

1970s Education in America

1970s - Busing of minority groups to Euro-american schools was used as a tactic to

desegregate schools.

Multicultural curriculum -

1980s Education in America

1980s- Increase of immigration of minority groups into the United States

1983-A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform , Declining test scores , weak
performances of U.S students compared with students in other industrialized nations.
1990s Education in America

1991-Charter Schools- Tax supported elementary schools

-Free from some rules & regulations from school district
-Type Choice and Charter
-Unique missions, instructions, strategies and designed

2000s Education in America

Spanish the second most spoken language in schools

2010s Education in America

Efforts to change how schools function, introduction of new learning standards , push to reduce
school suspensions

2014- Majority of public school students are people of color for the first time in U.S. History

2017- Charters schools was at least 10% of public schools enrollment and in more than 200
cities & communities

2020s Education in America

2020-Covid 19 closed schools because of airborne virus affecting humans